

RECONSTRUCTION 
of  the  NEGRO  RACE 


BY 


M.  M.  MADDEN,  Supreme  President  of  the 
National  Court  of  Protection,  Terre  Haute,  Ind. 

tnimiiminimmntiumiiiiuiimHiifl 


1 


15  - 


REV.  G.  W.  WILLIAMS, 

Pastor  Allen  A.  M.  E.  Chapel,  Terre  Haute,  Ind. 


'He's  a  man  for  the  day;  he's  a  man  for  the  hour." 


INTRODUCTION. 


1.  First,  the  reconstruction  of  the  ra.ce. 

2.  Eleven  million  of  people  misled  for  over  a  half  century 
with  reference  to  their  citizenship  in  the  U.  S. 

3.  Special  representation  in  Washington,   which  you     are 
entitled  to  by  virtue  of  the  constitution  failing  to  provide  for 
your  citizenship. 

4.  The  first  and  second  article  of  the     14th  Amendment 
state  the  object  of  the  amendment  but  not  its  completion. 

5.  The  cause  of  Abraham  Lincoln's  death. 

6.  Mobilizing    the    negro    for    the    purpose    of    petitioning 
to  the  government  to  create  the  position  for  the  race  to  have 
a  representative. 

7.  For  the  race  to  have  the  intelligence  to  fill  the  position 
by  selecting  a  man  that  is  qualified  for  the  same. 

8.  To   petition   the   government   to  colonize   the   race   and 
give  us  self  government,  which  is  wisdoms  roots,  since  the  two 
races  disagree  so  far,  we  do  not  ask  for  citizenship  but  colon- 
ization.    We  believe  that  greater  opportunities  would  present 
themselves. 

These  are  the  outlines  of  Dr.  Madden's  address  to  a  large 
audience  in  the  fairgrounds  at  Muskogee,  Okla.  After  this 
address  Dr.  Madden  received  a  charter  from  the  state  of  Okla- 
homa, to  perfect  an  organization  known  as  the  National  Court 
of  Protection.  Dr.  Madden  is  one  of  the  builders  of  the  world 
yet  to  come. 


SRLF 
URL 


Reconstruction  of  the  Negro  Race. 


As  fast  as  in  fears,  nature  of  regulation  will  always  exist, 
when  the  human  family  was  small,  and  only  consist  of  two 
people  it  was  not  necessary  to  give  ten  rules  of  regulation. 

You  had  no  need  for  the  Ten  Commandments  at  that  time. 
One  charge  was  sufficient  to  take  care  of  the  situation, — The 
day  in  which  you  eat  therefore,  you  shall  surely  die.  That 
took  care  of  the  human  family  for  a  long  time.  But  as  fast  as 
the  people  multiplied  so  did  their  sins,  and  the  day  did  ap- 
pear when  there  were  ten  inferior  qualities  which  existed 
among  the  people,  and  a  rule  of  regulations  provided. 

There  was  a  law  written  upon  stone  by  the  hand  of  nature, 
and  handed  down  to  the  human  family.  That  took  care  of  the 
situation  for  a  good  long  time,  but  as  fast  as  the  people 
multiplied  so  did  their  sins.  Under  that  very  same  method  of 
sin,  the  wages  of  sin  became  death,  and  it  took  the  gift  of  God 
to  be  eternal  life,  and  the  rule  and  regulation  provided  no 
graver  question  than  the  race  question  is  today  confronting 
the  American  people.  The  white  man's  promise  to  the  negro 
when  he  could  vote  was  just  as'  munificent  as  a  cross  section 
of  the  Ten  Commandments  edge  with  the  'Pilgrims  Progress.' 
But  since  you  have  ceased  to  become  a  political  factor  you 
are  today  rapidly  becoming  to  realize  your  real  position. 
Placing  your  feet  upon  that  new  plane  of  knowledge.  In  a 
great  measure  you  are  able  to  work  out  what  the  future  holds 
in  store  for  you  and  your  off-springs.  This  is  a  great  race 
of  ours.  Your  being  in  number  today  (one  tenth)  of  the 
population  of  the  American  people,  giving  you  a  population  of 
eleven  million  (11,000,000)  people  with  no  enterprise,  not 
even  seeking  the  material,  civil,  nor  moral  welfare  of  this 
country  and  of  the  South  in  particular.  There  is  not  a  peo- 
ple in  America,  that  can  disregard  this  element  of  our  popu- 
lations and  ever  reach  the  highest  success.  In  other  words 
the  value,  the  manhood  of  our  race  must  be  recognized. 
There  is  an  interest  that  we  have  in  this  government  that  must 
be  taken  care  of,  and  can  only  be  taken  care  of  by  reprp°°u- 

(S) 


tation.  Every  people  in  the  U.  S.  is  represented  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  negro  race.  There  is  a  law  tree  setting  in  the 
center  of  this  government  that  was  set  by  George  Washing- 
ton, representing  a  straight  pole  in  the  ground  from  earths 
sorrow  to  heavens  glory  that  meant  equal  rights  to  all  men. 
Every  time  that  congress  has  met  since  the  death  of  George 
Washington  and  legislated,  they  have  not  set  another  pole — 
they  only  make  an  amendment  and  attach  it,  which  represents 
a  limb  on  the  law  tree.  Just  as  many  times  as  Congress  has 
met  and  legislated,  since  the  death  of  Washington,  there  are 
just  that  many  limbs  on  the  law  tree  today. 

There  is  a  limb  going  out  in  favor  of  every  Indian  by  tribe — 
Polish,  Slavish,  and  Hungarian, — town  incorporations,  rail- 
roads incorporations  oil  trusts,  tea  trusts,  every  thing  that  is 
operated  in  these  U.  S.  is  made  mention  of  on  the  law  tree 
with  the  exception  of  this  11,000,000  negroes.  You  are  not 
made  mention  of  on  the  law  tree  of  which  you  are  living  un- 
der by  reason  of  the  fact  you  have  never  been  represented  by 
anybody.  You  can  go  to  Washington  today  or  tomorrow,  you 
will  find  five  big  Indians  sitting  there  representing  the  five  big 
Indian  tribes  of  this  country;  a  big  Jap  representing  the  vi- 
tality of  Japan,  a  Mexican  representing  the  vitality  of  Mexico 
just  as  all  other  nations  have  given  their  vitality  to  their 
country,  you  will  find  a  man  representing  that  people,  con- 
stantly preparing  bills,  presenting  them  to  congress;  getting 
legislation  for  his  people.  You  can  not  find  a  negro  there  any 
where,  outside  of  a  janitor.  Every  law  that  is  made  in  this 
country  is  made  as  an  act  of  congress  and  if  you  havent  any 
one  there  to  prepare  a  bill  and  present  it  to  Congress  to  act  on, 
tell  me,  how  could  you  hope  to  get  legislation.  Is  it  not  true 
that  there  is  a  certain  percent  of  every  man's  business  that  ab- 
solutely belongs  to  him. 

There  is  no  one  going  to  take  care  of  the  obligations  of  your 
home  but  you.  There  is  a  certain  per  cent  of  every  race'sbusi- 
ness  that  absolutely  belongs  to  them.  Anytime  you  think  that 
another  race  will  take  up  the  interest  of  your  race  and  foster 
it  before  this  government,  you  have  overlooked  your  hand. 
Fifty-two  years  should  teach  you  that  fact.  You  never  knew 
an  Indian  to  press  the  claim  of  a  Chinaman,  and  you  never 
knew  of  a  Chinaman  pressing  the  claim  of  a  Jap,  and  you 
never  knew  of  a  white  man  who  pressed  the  claim  of  the 
Negro.  Every  race  presents  its  own  claim.  Then  why  has  the 
Negro  been  sitting  here  for  fifty-two  long  years  waiting  on  a 
white  man  to  press  his  claim.  Every  Negro  that  ever  came 
through  this  country  making  speeches  from  any  political 

(4) 


standpoint  has  been  advocating  some  white  man's  cause,  and 
this  race  going  to  hell  swapping  ends,  drawing  on  our  imagina- 
tion, telling  us  that  the  time  will  come,  that  you  can  take  a 
teaspoon  and  dip  the  sea  dry; — that  time  will  never  be.  They 
have  told  you  that  the  time  will  come  when  you  will  not  tell 
a  black  man  from  a  white  man, — that  time  will  never  come. 
They  have  told  you  that  the  time  would  come  that  God  in  his 
Infinite  wisdom  would  so  arrange  it  that  the  lamb  and  the 
leopard  would  lay  down  together.  They  are  laying  down  to- 
gether now,  but  mark  you,  when  the  leopard  gets  up  the  lamb 
is  always  IN  the  leopard. 

Every  effort  that  you  have  ever  made  to  take  care  of  your- 
selves in  this  government,  rather  than  relieve  the  situation, 
you  stronger  demonstrate  that  you  are  not  able  or  capable  of 
self  government.  You  have  been  sending  delegates  to  Wash- 
ington ever  since  you  have  been  a  free  people.  You  have 
no  business  sending  a  delegation  where  you  have  no  represen- 
tation. You  have  no  one  there  to  send  a  man  to  or  a  set  of 
men  to.  They  will  go  up  there  and  give  the  bill  to  some  one, 
they  know  not  who;  just  as  apt  to  be  a  janitor  as  any  one  else. 
They  will  never  show  you  your  mistake,  you  must  find  your 
own  mistakes  to  be  able  to  profit  thereby.  They  will  look  on 
the  heading  of  that  bill  and  see  that  it  is  headed  with  some 
little  auxiliary  of  a  church  or  fraternal  order,  however  it's  an 
individual  affair  and  does  not  mean  the  race. 

And  they  will  say  all  right  John,  we'll  take  this  and  take 
care  of  it  for  you.  And  it  goes  on  the  table,  and  from  on  the 
table  it  goes  under  the  table,  and  from  there  to  the  waste 
basket  and  from  there  in  the  fire.  Then  you  are  ready  to  say 
that  your  man  went  up  there  and  sold  out,  when  he  had  noth- 
ing on  God's  earth  to  sell  out  but  that  piece  of  paper  and  he 
could  have  sold  that  to  you  before  he  could  have  sold  it  to  any 
one  there,  because  you  are  always  buying  something  that  is 
worthless.  Any  man  or  any  set  of  men  that  represents  this 
11,000,000  Negroes  should  be  an  authorized  indignant  of  this 
people,  all  over  the  U.  S. 

When  the  day  comes  that  you  would  voice  yourselves  in  one 
sentiment  and  let  one  man's  voice  be  the  sentiment  of  the  race 
you  will  not  only  attract  the  attention  of  this  government,  but 
any  other  government  under  the  sun.  You  will  get  anything 
that  you  ask  for  that  is  right,  fair  and  just.  I  don't  want  you 
to  ask  for  anything  more  than  justice,  and  I  don't  want  you  to 
be  satisfied  with  anything  less.  Every  right  that  the  Negro 
has  in  America  has  been  donated  to  him  without  a  title.  The 
constitution  of  the  U.  S.  does  not  provide  for  the  citizenship 

(5) 


of  the  Negro  in  America.  The  thirteenth,  fourteenth,  and 
fifteenth  amendment  of  the  constitution  of  the  U.  S.  did  not 
complete  the  citizenship  of  the  Negro.  The  13th  amendment 
set  him  free;  the  14th  amendment  only  created  a  position  by 
which  he  was  to  become  a  citizen.  Final  steps  taking  advant- 
age of  that  amendment  to  make  him  a  citizen  were  never 
taken. 

The  15th  amendment  guaranteed  the  right  of  citizenship. 
The  white  man  makes  the  law,  he  interprets  the  law,  he  en- 
forces the  law,  and  all  that  the  negro  does  is  abide  by  the  law. 
This  is  what  should  have  grown  out  of  the  14th  amendment 
of  the  Constitution,  all  persons  of  African  blood  of  the  vitality 
of  Africa  to  the  U.  S.  shall  from  this  day  and  date  be  known 
as  adopted  citizens  of  the  U.  S.  and  their  ancestors  shall  be 
born  bona  fide.  They  shall  have  all  the  rights  of  suffrage  and 
privileges  of  citizenship.  There  shall  not  be  a  state  in  the 
union  that  shall  reserve  a  right  to  abridge  their  rights. 

Due  to  the  fact  that  we  did  not  have  a  man  authorized  by 
the  race,  neither  qualified  to  prepare  such  a  bill  and  defend 
the  same  before  the  government,  your  rights  stop  right  there.. 
You  might  search  this  country  just  as  Sodom  and  Gomiah 
\vere  searched,  to  see  how  many  Negroes  you  would  find  in 
America  that  knew  the  cause  of  Abe  Lincoln's  death,  and  you 
would  not  find  as  many  Negroes  in  America  that  knew  the 
cause  of  that  man's  death  as  you  found  righteous  people  in 
that  city.  Abe  Lincoln,  died  for  the  same  cause  that  I  am  talk- 
ing to  you  on  tonight.  He  says,  "I  must  adopt  these  people  as 
citizens  of  the  U.  S.  to  protect  this  government  further  down 
the  road.  These  people  are  ignorant  now  but  they  will  not 
always  be  so.  They  have  learned  to  imitate.  They  are  going 
to  educate,  and  in  that  they  will  seek  the  very  highest  marks 
of  intelligence,  you  can  fool  some  of  the  people  all  the  time, 
and  all  of  the  people  some  of  the  time,  but  you  can  not  fool  all 
of  the  people  all  of  the  time.  These  Negroes  will  understand 
that  they  were  enslaved  for  228  years  upon  the  ground  that 
they  were  property.  After  which  we  have  contradicted  our 
own  statement  and  declared  them  people.  They  will  under- 
stand that  if  they  were  people  then  they  must  have  been  people 
to  start  with.  They  will  also  understand  that  it  must  have 
been  an  error  in  the  government.  They  will  further  under- 
stand that  any  government  that  is  not  responsible  for  the  same 
is  incapable  of  establishing  statuatory  laws,  in  that  they 
would  rise  up  and  ask  for  indemnities  for  228  years  of  servi- 
tude. That  is  not  all  they  will  understand  at  the  beginning  of 
the  late  rebellion  of  this  country  it  was  unconstitutional  to 

(6) 


impose  military  service  upon  any  man  who  was  not  a  citizen. 
If  we  could  have  imposed  military  services  upon  people  whether 
they  had  been  citizens  or  not,  without  a  question  that  4,000,- 
000  Negroes  would  have  had  to  gone  on  to  war  to  start  with. 
But  it  was  unconstitutional  to  start  with,  was  it  not  also  un- 
constitutional to  end  with.  But  simply  because  it  became  a 
military  necessity,  military  services  were  imposed  upon  that 
4,000,000  Negroes  who  had  always  been  counted  something 
less  than  a  human.  And  in  plain  violation  to  every  law  there 
was  in  the  world  1,500,000  of  these  Negroes  died  on  the  bat- 
tle field  for  the  liberty  that  they  today  enjoy,  this  government 
was  responsible  for  these  dead  men  and  the  race  should  have 
been  paid  for  it.  But  we  can  adopt  them  right  here  as  citizens 
of  the  U.  S.  and  have  them  to  become  a  part  of  the  government, 
and  in  that  they  will  never  reserve  a  right  to  issue  an  in- 
demnity against  it.  The  white  man  arose  in  arms  against  Abe 
Lincoln  and  says,  "No,"  We  have  bought  the  country  beyond 
the  price  of  money.  We  have  bought  it  by  blood,  every  dollar 
that  we  are  worth  in  this  country  is  invested  here,  either  in 
a  business  manufacture,  or  a  home  industry  and  to  suffer  an 
invalid  people  who  have  had  only  fifty  odd  years  of  civilization 
to  whose  capital  does  not  amount  to  a  dollar,  to  come  in  and 
share  an  equal  right  with  us,  hold  positions  over  our  head  that 
would  be  of  such  a  nature  as  to  govern  our  home  and  say 
what  we  should  do  with  our  wealth,  why  ignorance  would  be 
bliss;  and  it  would  be  folly  to  be  wise.  Prosperity  has  be- 
come a  naught,  investment  would  be  wiped  out  of  existence 
before  we  would  suffer  such  a  thing  to  be,  we  will  kill  the 
man  that  is  advocating  such  a  cause,  and  that  will  stop  the 
situation  in  its  bud. 

For  that  cause  they  killed  Abe  Lincoln,  then  there  came  a 
secret  organization  among  the  white  people,  never  to  let  this 
Negro  know  but  that  he  is  a  citizen.  He  can  not  read  or 
write.  The  only  way  that  you  can  get  him  to  understand  is 
to  "get  him  told."  Tell  him  that  he  is  a  citizen  and  to  estab- 
lish this  fact  with  him,  you  will  have  to  allow  him  all  of  the 
privileges  of  citizenship  of  a  white  man.  Let  him  eat  and 
sleep  with  you  for  a  while — It's  not  going  to  hurt  you.  Let 
him  vote  with  you  for  a  while.  Let  him  ride  on  the  train 
with  you  for  a  while.  When  you  get  him  thoroughly  educated 
to  the  place  where  he  thinks  he's  a  citizen,  and  will  never 
know  the  cause  of  the  effect  then  you  can  detract  these  privi- 
leges from  him,  one  by  one  and  fence  him  off  again  as  prop- 
erty. 

Dear  people  let  me  ask  you  the  question,  "Where  are  you 

(7) 


at  today?"  The  worst  has  not  come  to  you  if  you  do  not  wake 
up  to  a  sense  of  your  duty.  Every  right  that  you  have  in  the 
U.  S.  is  donated  to  you  without  a  title.  Any  right  that  the 
constitution  does  not  provide  for,  you  have  no  protection  of  the 
same.  As  the  case  stands  today,  every  state  in  the  union  can 
abridge  your  rights  without  violating  the  constitution  of  the 
U.  S. 

To  make  this  statement  more  clear  I  will  interpret  the  Thir- 
teenth, Fourteenth,  and  Fifteenth  amendment  of  the  Federal 
Constitution,  as  follows:  The  13th  Amendment  of  the  Con- 
stitution says  that  no  slavery  shall  exist  in  the  Union.  That 
simply  prohibits  the  white  man  from  owning  slaves.  It  also 
prohibits  the  five  civilized  tribes  of  Indians  from  owning 
slaves.  But  when  this  amendment  was  enacted  there  was  an 
Indian  in  this  country  known  as  the  "Creek  Indian."  They 
adopted  their  slaves.  After  which  that  slave  is  known  today 
upon  the  record  as  an  adopted  citizen.  He  became  a  citizen  by 
virtue  of  his  adoption. 

You  also  had  an  Indian  in  this  country  who  refused  to 
adopt  their  slaves,  known  as  the  Chottow  Indian,  but  under 
certain  acts  of  the  3rd  and  4th  articles  of  the  66th  treaty  they 
gave  them  40  acres  of  land  which  was  home.  After  which 
that  slave  is  known  today  upon  the  record  as  a  Chottow  freed- 
man.  If  the  13th  amendment  made  him  a  citizen,  why  is  he 
known  as  a  Chottow  freedman.  The  white  man  failed  also  to 
adopt  his  slaves,  when  the  fox  of  the  wood  had  holes,  and  the 
birds  of  the  air  had  nests.  They  turned  that  Negro  loose 
without  his  adoption  and  without  a  place  to  lay  his  head.  So 
you  are  known  today  as  American  freedman,  not  one  Negro 
out  of  10,000  knows  that.  I  spoke  in  the  Hampton  University 
at  Marshall,  Texas.  I  asked  the  professor  of  that  school  what 
supported  that  school.  He  said,  '"The  Freedmen  Bureaus  of 
the  North." 

I  asked  him  what  did  the  "Freedmen  Bureaus"  consist  of. 
He  said,  "An  organization  of  white  men  appropriating  money 
to  educate  Negro  freedmen  of  the  south."  I  said  to  him  then 
you  are  known  as  a  freedman  "instead  of  a  citizen,"  are  you 
not.  He  said  to  me,  "Judge  I  hadn't  thought  about  that."  We 
had  a  Negro  to  get  in  jail  in  Mexico.  He  reported  to  the 
government  of  Mexico  that  he  was  an  American  citizen  from 
Kentucky.  The  Government  of  Mexico  wired  to  the  governor 
of  Kentucky,  and  told  him  that  there  was  a  negro  in  jail  here, 
that  claims  to  be  an  American  citizen.  The  Governor  of  Ken- 
tucky wired  to  the  Governor  of  Mexico  and  said,  "If  he  is  a 
black  man,  I  don't  see  how  he  can  be  a  citizen.  We  haven't 

(8) 


any  black  citizens.  You  may  turn  him  loose.  He  is  our 
Freedman,  he  thinks  he  is  a  citizen."  That  completes  the 
thirteenth  amendment  of  the  Federal  Constitution. 

Do  you  see  anything  in  that  that  provides  for  a  Negroe's 
citizenship?  Now  the  fourteenth  amendment  of  the  Federal 
Constitution  which  says,  "All  persons  born  or  naturalized  in 
the  U.  S.  shall  be  a  citizen  of  the  same,  or  in  the  state  wherein 
he  resides."  Born  or  naturalized,  there  is  a  technical  point 
that  you  could  not  only  drop  the  state  of  Indiana  in  but  you 
could  drop  the  U.  S.  in  it  and  never  find  it.  The  constitution 
of  the  11.  S.  readily  provides  for  three  classes  of  citizens.  1st 
adopted;  2nd  bona  fide;  3rd  an  alien.  The  alien  citizen  has  no 
light  that  the  bona  fide  citizen  has  a  right  to  respect;  and  it 
ie  impossible  for  your  child  to  be  born  bona  fide  without  the 
naturalization  of  their  fore-parents.  You  have  two  classes  of 
heirs  in  the  home.  One  *s  an  illegitimate  and  the  other  is  a 
bona  fide  child.  All  children  that  are  born  to  you  out  of  wed- 
lock are  illegitimate,  by  the  reason  of  the  fact  the  fore-parents 
of  that  child  have  never  complied  with  the  law  in  adoption  and 
matrimony. 

All  that  are  born  to  you  in  wedlock  are  known  as  legitimate, 
which  means  a  bona  fide  right  to  your  inheritance.  Then  it  is 
impossible  for  your  child  to  be  legitimately  birthed  to  you 
until  you  have  met  the  requirement  of  the  law.  On  the  other 
hand  for  citizenship,  if  the  Negro  race  had  been  adopted  citi- 
zens into  the  U.  S.  when  they  were  declared  people  instead  of 
property  you  would  have  been  born  a  bona  fide  citizen  to  this 
country  by  virtue  of  your  fore-parents  adoption. 

But  as  they  were  never  adopted  and  your  interest  has  al- 
ways been  neglected,  it  brought  you  illegitimate  by  birth  in 
the  U.  S.,  known  as  an  alien  by  birth.  So  that  completes  the 
fourteenth  Amendment  of  the  Federal  Constitution.  Do  you 
see  anything  in  that  that  provides  for  a  Negroe's  citizenship? 
Remember  that  this  did  not  become  a  U.  S.  until  the  south  had 
surrendered  to  the  North. 

Then  the  two  governments  had  become  united,  (which  was 
known  as  the  U.  S.)  Prior  to  that  time  this  was  known  as 
America,  or  the  New  England  states.  There  vas  no  law  pro- 
vided for  allegiance  in  this  country  until  the  14th  Amendment 
was  enacted.  So  the  14th  Amendment  provides  for  all  races 
that  come  under  its  jurisdiction. 

Now  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  of  the  Federal  Constitution 
says  that  no  state  in  the  Union  shall  reserve  a  right  to  abridge 
the  right  of  any  citizen.  There  is  no  citizens  rights  abridged, 
but  whenever  there  is  a  law  enacted  prohibiting  you  from 


marrying  any  one  that<you  want,  or  anybody  that  wants  you, 
your  rights  are  abridged.  Whenever  there  is  a  law  enacted 
prohibiting  you  from  walking  up  to  the  ballot  boxes  casting 
a  vote  to  protect  your  property,  your  rights  are  abridged. 
Whenever  there  is  a  law  enacted  prohibiting  you  from  riding 
in  any  car  that  you  like,  after  you  have  paid  the  same  fare  that 
every  other  man  has  paid,  your  rights  are  abridged.  This  all 
being  a  fact  then  your  rights  are  abridged  just  as  far  as  the 
American  soil  goes. 

Then  what  does  the  15th  Amendment  guarantee  to  you  and 
me  any  part  of  the  Constitution  that  congress  does  not  have 
1/ower  to  enforce  is  not  worth  the  paper  it  is  written  on.  It 
takes  you  1,000  years  hard  labor  to  educate  a  child.  You 
need  not  hope  to  complete  your  work  in  the  first  generation, 
you  only  carry  your  boy,  or  girl  to  the  zenith  of  their  under- 
standing. When  those  two  children  marry  their  children  are 
born  unto  them  a  little  more  intelligent  than  their  parents, 
even  had  a  chance  to  l>e.  You  can  not  complete  your  work 
there.  So  generations  are  only  stepping  stones  into  an  educa- 
tion. White  people  have  had  5,000  years  to  become  what  they 
are,  and  are  making  improvements  all  the  time. 

You  have  only  had  fifty  years,  so  you  can  only  hope  to  get 
your  experience  as  the  years  come  and  go.  Ignorance  is  not 
a  fault,  but  rather  an  affliction.  So  this  race  is  badly  afflicted, 
yet  by  virtue  of  its  short  coming.  Now  getting  back  to  what 
the  race  has  got  to  ask  for,  you  have  more  to  ask  for  than  any 
people  under  the  sun,  and  you  are  asking  for  less.  Is  it  not 
true  from  history  that  this  country  is  made  up  from  the  vi- 
tality of  other  countries.  Every  man  or  woman  who  has 
come  to  this  country  has  come  of  his  own  free  will,  their 
own  knowledge  and  consent. 

Did  the  Negro  come  that  way?  The  question  answers  it- 
self, "NO!"  You  are  the  only  people  that  have  been  captured 
in  your  own  country  and  then  forced  to  come  to  this  country; 
after  which  they  have  forced  you  to  clear  the  forest;  drive 
back  the  great  beast,  built  the  railroads;  make  the  bread  and 
pay  for  the  college  education  of  the  white  man.  And  what  did 
you  ever  get  for  it,  the  meanest  name,  the  cruelest  treatment, 
that  hell  itself  could  devise,  has  been  poured  out  upon  you 
without  being  mixed  with  the  least  degree  of  mercy.  If  you 
had  voluntarily  left  your  home  and  country  and  come  to 
this  country  as  other  nations  have,  it  would  have  been  simply 
a  matter  of  your  choice,  but  being  captured  in  your  home  and 
forced  to  come  to  this  country  in  the  manner  that  you  were, 
it,  it  not  a  fact  beyond  any  reasonable  doubt,  that  this  country 

(10) 


is  responsible  for  your  home.  Every  man  with  a  teaspoonfull 
of  sense  would  say  "Yes."  The  reason  why  you  have  not  got 
it  is,  you  have  never  ask  for  it.  If  Negro  organization  would 
have  stood  for  anything  we  would  have  been  in  a  home  long 
ago.  The  government  is  ready  and  willing  to  comply  with 
such  a  request;  but  you  must  come  through  the  proper  channel, 
and  that  is  through  a  representative  in  Washington.  That  is 
not  all  that  you  have  to  ask  for.  You  have  served  the  coun- 
try 228  years,  without  compensation,  upon  the  ground  that 
you  were  property,  instead  of  people  after  which  they  con- 
tradicted their  own  statement  and  declared  you  people  instead 
of  property.  If  you  were  people  then  were  you  not  people  to 
start  with?  The  question  answers  itself,  "Yes."  Then  who 
made  the  error.  It  was  the  government  beyond  all  question. 
Any  government  that  is  not  responsible  for  the  same  is  in- 
capable of  establishing  statutory  laws.  Then  if  this  govern- 
ment is  a  worthy  object  of  making  its  own  laws,  without  a 
question,  they  are  subject  to  indemnity  to  this  people  for  228 
years  of  servitude.  The  reason  why  you  never  got  anything  is, 
you  never  ask  for  it.  A  thing  that  is  not  worth  asking  for, 
is  not  worth  having. 

That  is  not  all  you  have  to  ask  for,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
late  rebellion  of  this  country,  it  was  unconstitutional  to  impose 
military  service  upon  any  man  who  was  not  a  citizen.  If  they 
could  have  imposed  military  services  upon  people  whether  they 
had  been  citizens  or  not,  that  4,000,000  of  Negroes  would  have 
had  to  have  gone  into  war  to  start  with.  The  other  fellow 
would  have  stayed  at* home. 

But  it  was  unconstitutional  and  they  could  not  do  that. 
Then  if  it  was  unconstitutional  to  start  with,  was  it  not  also 
to  end  with.  But  simply  because  it  became  a  military  neces- 
sity, military  services  were  imposed  upon  that  4,000,000  of 
Negroes,  that  had  always  been  counted  something  less  than 
human.  One  million  and  a  half  of  your  fathers  have  perished 
on  the  battle  fields  of  this  country  in  plain  violation  to  every 
law  that  there  was  on  earth.  This  government  was  responsible 
for  those  men's  lives  and  this  race  should  have  been  paid  for 
them.  And  the  reason  why  you  were  never  paid  you  never 
ask  for  anything.  I  hope  that  you  may  see  into  this  that, 
Negro  organizations  are  not  standing  for  anything.  That  is 
not  all  that  you  have  got  to  ask  for,  and  I  hope  you  will  mark 
these  words  down  on  your  memory,  write  them  down  on  the 
table  of  your  hearts,  never  to  be  forgotten  through  genera- 
tions. You  never  will  be  a  people  on  the  face  of  this  earth 
until  you  get  your  representatives  in  Washington  and  make 

( 11) 


DR.  MADDEN, 

Who  will  represent  the  Negro  Race  at  Washington, 


an  application  to  this  government  to  colonize  you  to  yours- 
elves. 

Chickens  and  gardens  are  not  healthy  together.  A  lamb 
and  a  leopard  will  never  socially  communicate  together, 
spiders  and  flies  never  build  their  dens  together.  Water  and 
oil  will  not  agree.  Vinegar  and  soda  will  never  quietly  and 
peacefully  mix.  Neither  will  you  ever  harmonize  the  race 
question  with  the  two  races  together. 

If  God  almighty  ever  su<Tered  an  object  of  pity  to  exist  on 
earth,  without  a  question;  it  is  a  Negro  man.  He  deserves  the 
sympathy  of  the  fowls  of  the  air,  and  the  beast  of  the  field. 
Here  he  stands  with  his  wife  and  children  staring  him  in  the 
face  for  a  living;  and  here  he  stands  staring  the  white  man 
in  the  face  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  for  a  job.  How  can  you 
serve  your  family  independently  so  long  as  you  are  dependent 
upon  the  other  fellow.  You  must  make  yourself  a  job.  That 
same  railroad  out  there  is  owned  and  controlled  by  the  white 
man.  You  can  not  stick  your  head  in  any  farther  than  a  jim 
crow  car.  That  same  road  can  be  owned  and  controlled  by 
Negroes  in  a  colony  of  their  own;  that  road  must  be  built; 
those  ties  and  steel  rails  must  be  laid,  and  it  can  be  done 
by  Negroes.  Those  cars  must  be  built  also  that  engine.  That 
train  must  be  operated  which  can  be  done  by  Negroes.  You 
must  educate  your  boys  as  lawyers  and  doctors,  as  brick  ma- 
sons and  carpenters,  as  electricians  and  machinists.  Educate 
your  girls  as  teachers  and  stenographers,  and  to  do  anything 
any  other  race  is  educating  its  people  for.  What  can  you  see 
ahead  of  you  today  'when  you  lift  your  head  and  look  for  the 
future  hope  of  your  children,  outside  of  hewers  of  wood  and 
drawers  of  water.  Educate  your  boy  or  girl  above  common  la- 
bor if  you  dare  and  before  they  would  resort  to  common  means 
for  a  living,  they  would  bury  themselves  and  the  race  also  in 
disgrace  up  to  its  neck.  Two-thirds  of  the  divorce  cases  that 
have  gone  into  the  courts  today  are  by  reason  of  fact  that  the 
wife  was  tired  of  taking  care  of  the  home.  She  is  in  a  wash 
tub  up  to  her  elbows,  her  husband  rooming  the  country  look- 
ing for  a  job.  The  two  are  out  in  the  world  striving  to  feed 
their  little  children  and  no  one  is  rearing  them.  But  when 
the  avenues  of  life  are  opened  up  to  them  or  to  the  Negro 
men,  and  doors  of  industry  are  thrown  open  to  him,  the  same 
opportunity  confronts  Negro  men  as  it  does  other  men  to  sup- 
port their  families,  then  wife  can  stay  at  home  with  her  fami- 
ly and  children.  Your  children  then  come  up  with  better 
morals  and  manners  from  the  very  fact  that  they  get  better 
attention.  Then  hearts  will  be  brighter,  homes  will  be  hap- 

(13) 


pier,  life  will  be  worth  living,  and  the  world  at  large  will  be 
better.  Is  that  any  reason  why  this  race  should  be  colonized, 
any  fair  minded  person  would  say  "yes." 

2nd  Reason.  That  is  not  the  only  reason,  the  next  reason 
is,  we  do  not  believe  that  the  white  man's  literature  will 
ever  give  the  black  man  a  complete  education.  It  will  open 
the  eyes  of  the  white  man,  and  blindfold  the  Negro.  I  do  not 
mean  to  say  that  it  will  not  give  you  some  advantage.  Any- 
thing that  is  subject  to  criticism  is  not  complete.  The  spirit 
of  the  literature  teaches  that  your  color  is  a  curse,  and  that 
everything  in  heaven  is  white,  and  if  you  are  ever  to  get  there 
you  will  have  to  go  to  your  grave  or  somewhere  else  and  turn 
white.  They  forget  to  tell  you  that  there  is  a  rainbow  that 
encircles  this  element,  that  consists  of  seven  colors.  And  God 
has  just  as  much  glory  in  one  color  of  that  rainbow  as  he  has 
in  another,  because  it  is  all  a  part  of  his  creation.  And  if  I 
thought  I  would  have  to  go  to  my  grave  or  somewhere  else  and 
turn  white  before  I  would  be  a  fit  subject  for  my  father's  King- 
dom after  being  a  part  of  his  creation,  I  would  by  far  rather 
go  to  a  devil's  hell,  yes  a  thousand  times  than  to  see  such  a- 
God  as  that.  But  there  is  not  a  word  of  that  true.  There  was 
a  man  that  spoke  through  inspiration  a  little  better  than  six 
thousand  years  ago.  He  knew  nothing  of  this*  literature.  He 
says,  "You  shall  know  each  other  in  heaven  even  as  you  are 
known  on  earth."  I  know  my  brother  on  earth  is  a  black  man, 
then  to  see  him  in  heaven  as  a  white  man,  would  I  have  any 
reason  to  know  him.  And  what  does  that  make  of  the  litera- 
ture that  you  are  teaching  the  children,  as  fast  as  they  become 
advanced  in  the  literature  of  this  country,  teaching  the 
superiority  of  the  white  man  and  the  inferiority  of  the  black 
man,  it  only  suffers  your  grievances  to  go  up  and  over  shadow 
your  opportunity. 

The  past  rises  before  me.  I  see  my  dear  old  mother  coming 
right  up  out  of  servitude,  uneducated  as  they  might  have  been, 
unfortunate  as  it  might  have  been  for  my  race  of  people,  but 
that  dear  old  mother  understood  from  an  animal  instinct  that 
it  was  her  duty  to  move  the  little  children  on  their  career  of 
life  a  little  better  than  the  producer  was.  In  that  I  see  that 
dear  old  mother  standing  over  the  wash  tub  from  early  in  the 
morning  until  late  at  night.  Standing  over  the  ironing  board 
until  she  fell  asleep.  I  saw  her  as  she  wades  through  the 
snow  and  the  sleet  that  she  may  keep  her  daughter  in  school, 
that  she  might  become  an  intelligent  woman.  As  soon  as  she 
gets  her  diploma  in  this  infernal  literature  what  does  she 
learn,  she  learns  that  her  mother  is  something  less  than  hu- 

(14) 


man,  she  also  learns  that  her  father  and  brothers  are  of  a 
worthless  race,  and  in  that  she  would  rather  be  a  white  man's 
woman  than  a  Negro  man's  wife.  The  time  has  not  got  to 
come  but  is  here  now  that  an  undoubted  loyalty  should  be  de- 
manded of  every  Negro  in  America,  both  inside  and  outside 
of  fraternalism.  The  elevation  of  every  people  on  earth  de- 
pends upon  the  credit  of  your  women. 

Then  if  your  women  don't  amount  to  anything  your  race 
don't  amount  to  anything.  Is  that  any  reason  why  these  two 
races  should  be  separated.  Any  fair  minded  man  would  say 
"yes." 

SUBJECT  OF  ORGANIZATION. 

Every  people  in  the  U.  S.  are  organized  with  the  exception 
of  the  Negro,  and  you  have  organized,  and  organized,  and  or- 
ganized until  you  are  discouraged.  Thirty-three  secret  or- 
ganizations are  hanging  on  the  walls  of  this  country  today,  and 
every  one  of  them  claim  to  be  a  iDower  in  Europe,  Africa,  and 
Australia.  You  may  be  a  power  I  am  not  in  a  position  to  say 
you  are  not,  but  I  am  in  a  position  to  say  this,  "If  you  are  a 
power  you  are  not  standing  for  anything."  In  the  last  42 
years  that  you  have  been  catering  to  those  worthless  things 
hanging  on  walls  of  this  country,  you  have  lost  everything  that 
a  race  would  loose.  You  have  lost  your  recognition  as  a  man; 
you  have  lost  your  redress  to  court;  you  have  lost  your  seat  in 
trains  and  in  waiting  rooms;  you  have  lost  your  road  to  the 
ballot  box;  you  have  lost  protection  to  yourselves,  your  family 
and  your  property.  If  you  live  in  the  world  from  now  until 
God  Almighty  bid  you  dust  to  rise,  you  have  all  to  win  and 
nothing  to  loose.  Is  that  any  evidence  that  you  are  carrying 
dead  men's  bones. 

Thirty-three  secret  organizations  only  have  a  tendency  to 
put  you  farther  apart.  Take  a  stick  the  size  of  your  finger, — 
you  can  break  it  with  all  the  ease  in  the  world,  but  bind  a 
score  of  them  together,  can  you  break  them?  No,  you  can- 
not. It  is  even  so  with  us  as  a  race.  You  can  break  one  man, 
however  great  he  may  be,  but  it  is  impossible  to  break  a  great 
race  of  11,000,00  of  people  co-operated  together  for  the  up- 
building of  laws  and  justice.  That  co-operated  unity,  that 
concerted  action  is  necessary  for  all  the  people  who  would 
seek  the  light  of  better  days.  Is  that  any  reason  why  this 
race  should  get  together.  You  can  never  be  a  people  any 
other  way.  Right  in  the  very  face  of  your  organizations  I  see 
them  coming  right  in  to  your  homes  dragging  a  man  out  of 
bed  right  before  his  wife  and  little  children's  eyes,  and 

(15) 


murdering  that  without  the  law,  without  jury  and  without 
judge.  I  see  his  own  fellow  men  going  on  disinterested,  "I 
haven't  anything  to  do  with  that  he  couldn't  give  me  any 
Pythian  sign."  I  see  another  one  hanging  to  a  limb,  with  500 
bullet  holes  through  his  body,  his  tongue  hanging  below  his 
chin,  his  eyeballs  laying  out  on  his  checks,  and  his  own  fellow 
men  going  on  seemingly  disinterested.  "I  haven't  got  anything 
to  do  with  that.  He  could  not  give  me  any  Odd  Fellows  sign." 

I  see  another  one  tied  to  a  stake  with  fifty  gallons  of  coal 
oil  poured  on  him,  the  blaze  going  fifty  feet  above  the  man's 
head,  and  the  groans  going  up  to  God  that  cannot  be  uttered. 
The  earth  has  opened  up  its  mouth  and  swallowed  the  man's 
blood  as  a  testimony  against  civilization,  and  I  see  these  same 
men  saying,  "I  haven't  anything  to  do  with  that.  He  could 
not  give  me  the  Masonic  sign."  What  kind  of  a  sign  can  a 
dead  man  give  more  than  a  dead  man's  sign.  Before  you  will 
ever  be  a  race  of  people  on  this  earth  that  will  amount  to  the 
snap  of  your  finger,  you  have  got  to  come  to  this  one  particu- 
lar place  in  life,  whenever  one  Negro  man  or  woman  is  mis- 
treated let  every  drop  of  Negro  blood  be  insulted.  Everything 
on  earth  ought  to  stand  for  something.  If  you  are  a  man  of 
a  family  and  the  father  of  a  home  stand  for  that,  be  just  as 
good  a  father,  just  as  good  a  husband,  just  as  good  a  provider 
for  that  home  as  any  other  man  can  be,  then  your  wife  will  not 
have  to  quit  you  to  try  another  one.  If  you  are  a  minister  of 
the  Gospel  stand  for  that  by  going  right  down  into  the  facts 
of  God's  eternal  truths,  and  bringing  up  things  both  old  and 
new.  Analyze  them  to  the  world,  and  feed  the  people  of  God. 
How  many  ministers  have  you  got  out  in  the  world  today  that 
can  not  say  enough  about  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  to  induce 
you  to  want  to  go  there.  They  can  not  say  enough  about  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  induce  you  to  love  Him,  yet  they  are 
preachers.  They  are  not  standing  for  anything,  they  are 
nothing  more  or  less  than  professional  bums. 

If  you  are  a  farmer  then  stand  for  that,  let  your  profession 
vouch  for  your  living.  Don't  tell  me  you  are  a  farmer  then 
every  spring  wear  out  a  sack  under  your  arm  hunting  for  seed 
potatoes.  You  are  out  there  in  a  farmers  way,  but  you  are  not 
standing  for  anything.  Now  what  does  your  organization 
stand  for,  one  says  I  am  going  to  be  a  Pythian.  "What  do  you 
want  to  be  a  Pythian  for  John?"  Answer,  "All  these  railroad 
men  are  Pythians,  they  are  not  going  to  put  you  off  the  train 
if  you  are  a  Pythian.  Then  he's  fixing  to  beat  a  train,  that's 
what  he  stands  for.  "  Another  one  says,  "I'm  going  to  be  an 
Odd  Fellow,"  and  he  is  asked  why?  His  answer  is  why  they 

dfl) 


don't  hang  Odd  Fellows."  Right  then  he  has  some  one  picked 
out  that  he  is  going  to  shoot,  and  that  is  what  he  stands  for. 
Another  says  "I  want  to  be  a  Mason,"  and  he  is  ask  why,  and 
his  answer  is  why  if  you  are  a  Mason  a  white  man  will  shake 
hands  with  you  any  place  in  the  world.  Then  all  he  stands 
lor  is  shaking  hands  with  a  white  man.  Not  long  ago  I  was 
in  California  and  I  saw  some  little  white  boys  going  fishing, 
they  entertained  that  same  ambition  that  all  white  people  en- 
tertain they  threw  in  a  nickle  a  piece  and  hired  a  Negro  boy 
to  go  along  and  wait  on  the  crowd.  The  Negro  boy  put  his 
bait  in  a  small  can,  stuck  it  in  his  pocket  and  away  they  went 
to  the  river.  He  was  going  along  giving  all  of  the  boys  bait. 
Near  by  there  was  a  log  that  stuck  out  into  the  river  at  one 
end  of  this  log  the  water  was  possibly  eight  feet  deep  the  lit- 
tle Negro  was  running  in  and  out  on  this  log,  and  he  went 
to  the  end  of  this  log  to  make  his  turn,  his  foot  slipped  and 
he  went  head  foremost  into  the  river.  His  little  white  com- 
panions saw  him  go  down,  he  threw  off  his  coat  and  cap  and 
into  the  water  he  went,  he  came  up  swimming  with  one  hand 
and  the  Negro  boy  in  the  other.  It  was  not  long  until  he  was 
all  right  but  one  of  the  other  white  boys  called  Jake  and  says, 
''I  did  not  think  that  there  was  a  white  boy  on  earth  that 
thought  that  much  of  a  Negro  boy;  suppose  you  had  of 
drowned  that  water  was  eight  feet  deep."  He  then  said  I  don't 
want  to  play  with  you  any  more.  Jack  scratched  his  head  and 
frowned  then  explained,  "That  was  not  it,  he  had  the  bait." 
So  when  ever  you  see  a  white  man  shaking  hands  with  a 
Negro,  whenever  you  see  a  white  man  buggy  riding  a  Negro, 
whenever  you  see  a  white  man  going  arm  and  arm  with  a 
Negro,  that  is  a  another  Negro  that  has  got  the  bait.  He  has 
surely  got  something  that  that  white  man  wants.  You  have 
got  to  stand  for  something.  Congress  has  got  to  create  the 
position  for  you  to  have  the  representation  there.  Such  a 
position  has  never  been  created  yet  by  the  U.  S.  government. 
But  11,00,000  of  people  can  get  any  law  created  that  they 
want  that  is  right  and  fair,  whenever  you  take  the  sufficient 
endorsement  as  much  as  12  men  out  of  every  state  in  the 
Union,  twelve  men  out  of  every  state  means  576  men  would 
consist  of  your  cabinet  and  go  with  you  to  Washington.  Seat 
that  body  of  men  before  congress  and  President,  they  get  up 
and  make  your:  "Honored  President  of  the  U.  S.  and  worthy 
Congress  of  America,  I  represent  this  body  of  men.  They 
represent  the  states  in  which  they  live,  relative  to  the  vitality 
of  Africa  to  the  U.  S.  through  this  body  of  men  I  represent 
11,000,000  people.  They  recommend  that  I  be  seated  in  the 

(17) 


American  Congress  Hall  to  vouch  for  the  interest  of  the  race. 
We  have  an  interest  in  this  government  that  must  be  taken 
care  of  and  can  only  be  cared  for  by  representation.. 

The  same  being  the  hinges  by  which  hang  the  right  of  all 
the  people.  We  could  not  hope  to  be  taken  care  of  any  other 
way.  We  also  understand  that  such  legislation  must  be 
through  the  recommendations  of  the  President  to  congress,  so 
we  pray  that  the  President  would  recommend  Congress  to 
create  such  a  position.  I  am  today  solely  at  your  mercies." 
The  President  seeing  that  you  have  come  with  the  proper  en- 
dorsements will  recommend  Congress  to  create  such  a  position 
and  they  will  create  the  position  by  a  unanimous  vote.  Then 
you  get  two  rooms  in  the  lobby  of  the  White  House  with  all 
the  other  lobbyist  of  the  nation.  Then  when  you  get  ready  to 
send  your  delegates  to  Washington  you  have  some  one  to  send 
them  to  and  they  will  not  be  so  liable  to  give  that  bill  to'  a 
janitor.  Then  you  can  prepare  a  bill  and  present  it  to  Cong- 
ress recommending  that  some  thinly  populated  part  of  the  U. 
S.  be  set  apart  as  a  reservation  for  the  Negro  and  condemned 
as  a  colony.  The  government  appraised  negro  property 
throughout  the  Union  and  pay  for  it.  After  which  negro  prop- 
erty becomes  property  of  the  government.  It  would  naturally 
bring  in  return  the  same  money  it  would  require  to  condemn 
it.  Move  them  all  to  this  new  colony  where  they  would  re- 
serve a  right  to  make  their  own  laws  by  treaty  with  the  U.  S. 
At  the  same  time  he  takes  an  oath  of  allegience  to  protect  the 
constitutional  laws  of  the  U.  S.  When  the  U.  S.  flag  is  insulted 
the  negro  is  insulted,  he  becomes  a  factor  in  the  powers  of 
war.  Then  the  two  races  would  spread  forth  the  emblems  of 
eternal  peace,  and  be  friends  forever.  That  is  the  only  solu- 
tion under  the  sun  for  the  race  question.  I  would  like  to  call 
attention  to  something  that  happened  in  the  mail  department 
in  Washington.  They  separated  the  white  from  the  colored 
in  the  mail  department.  The  colored  people  partitioned 
against  it  and  sen*  a  delegation  before  the  President  Wilson. 
Mr.  Trotter  the  editor  of  a  Boston  paper,  was  the  speaker  of 
the  delegation  and  when  Mr.  Trotter  told  the  President  that 
all  he  was  asking  for  was  the  rights  of  a  bona  fide  citizen  the 
President  became  highly  insulted  and  ignored  Mr.  Trotter 
completely.  The  President  told  Mr.  Trotter  that  he  had  lost 
his  head  and  that  he  would  not  hear  him  any  further.  He 
also  turned  to  the  delegation  and  said,  "If  you  ever  have  any 
occasion  to  come  before  me  again  you  will  certainly  have  to 
bring  another  speaker."  He  also  said  to  the  delegation,  "I 
am  deeply  in  sympathy  with  the  Negro  race,  and  do  admire 

(18) 


the  progress  that  you  are  making,  but  the  thing  that  is  to  be 
sought  by  you  people  from  this  government  is  a  complete  in- 
dependence of  the  white  people.  The  white  people  are  will- 
ing to  do  anything  possible  to  assist  you.  What  more  could 
Mr.  Wilson  have  said,  he  simply  meant  for  you  to  get  to  your- 
selves and  transact  your  own  business,  so  all  Negroes  who  want 
to  be  Negro  leaders  should  get  into  this  movement  and  play 
the  part  of  Moses  and  Aaron,  and  if  you  die  on  the  way  God 
will  prepare  another  Caleb  and  Joshua. 

The  race  is  suffering  today  from  the  want  of  a  leader.  The 
Negroes  that  you  call  leaders  today  are  followers.  The 
preacher  never  gets  to  a  place  until  you  all  get  there.  The 
Doctor  never  goes  until  you  all  get  there,  the  lawyer  never 
goes  until  you  all  get  there,  all  that  I  have  made  mention  of 
are  following  you,  so  now  where  is  your  leader? 

The  race  has  been  trying  to  colonize  ever  since  it  has  been 
free,  by  setting  up  the  lower  parts  of  the  city  which  is  called 
"Negro  quarters."  In  many  parts  of  Oklahoma  you  have  ex- 
clusive Negro  towns  especially  Boley,  Oklahoma,  a  town  with 
inhabitants  of  3,000  negroes.  They  have  their  own  banks 
and  stores,  and  out  of  the  3,000  negroes  there  was  not  one 
qualified  to  vote.  They  call  that  colonization,  but  I  would 
call  it  "Bunching  up."  I  will  take  time  to  explain  to  you  the 
difference  between  colonization  and  segregation.  Segregation 
means  for  the  Negro  to  eat  in  the  kitchen,  and  the  white  man 
in  the  dining  room;  it  also  means  that  you  must  ride  together 
on  the  train  or  walk. 

Colonization  means  that  a  certain  portion  of  the  country  is 
set  aside  for  you,  and  each  one  of  you  have  a  certain  portion 
of  land,  each  one  of  you  draw  a  certain  proportion  from  the 
government.  If  the  Negro  had  known  what  colonization 
was  every  one  of  them  would  be  in  a  colony  today.  The  white 
people  highly  favor  this  movement  and  the  act  is  plausible. 
And  without  a  question  any  negro  who  expects  to  make  a  liv- 
ing with  his  hands  and  be  the  support  of  his  family  will  favor 
this  movement.  While  this  is  a  public  talk  I  am  making,  and 
if  you  desire  to  know  the  further  details  of  this  movement, 
we  would  ask  you  to  come  and  cast  your  lot  with  the  National 
court  of  protection,  and  if  there  is  anything  written  in  this 
book  that  you  do  not  understand  I  will  be  glad  if  you  will  call 
and  see  me  for  further  satisfaction. 

The  white  man  is  in  the  saddle  in  this  country  and  he  is  in 
there  to  stay.  He  is  ahead  of  you  financially;  he  is  ahead  of 
you  in  education;  he  is  ahead  of  you  in  art  and  in  science.  He 
came  to  this  country  ahead  of  you  and  he  is  going  to  stay 

(19) 


ahead  of  you;  so  what  star  of  hope  can  you  see  rising  over 
the  pathway  of  that  weary  footman  of  color.  But  I  am  here 
to  tell  you  that  a  new  morning  star  has  risen,  a  brighter  day 
is  dawning.  God  Almighty  has  always  prepared  a  man  for  the 
day,  and  a  man  for  the  hour.  When  women  were  packing 
mortar  on  the  walls  in  Egypt,  little  infant  babies  were  tied 
to  their  mothers  back  as  she  was  following  the  ox  through  the 
field,  the  groans  of  that  people  went  up  to  God  that  could  not 
be  uttered  and  troubled  the  Master  on  the  throne.  And  God 
came  down  in  the  image  of  fire  and  halted  Moses  on  the  moun- 
tain and  said,  "Moses  take  off  thy  shoes  for  the  ground  which 
you  stand  on  is  holy."  I  have  a  holy  communication  to  make 
with  you,  the  groans  of  my  people  have  come  up  before  me,  I 
want  you  to  go  down  into  the  land  of  Egypt  and  tell  Mr. 
Pharoah  if  he  cannot  use  my  people  to  a  good  advantage  that 
I  have  a  land  prepared  for  them.  One  man  lead  the  children 
of  Israel  to  victory.  I  look  down  the  line  of  life  a  little  nearer, 
I  saw  4,000,000  of  people  sold  at  the  poles  and  whipped  at  the 
post,  little  infant  babies  pulled  from  their  mother's  breast 
and  sold  to  foreign  emigration.  In  that  I  see  all  that  fond 
relation  of  mother  and  father,  brother  and  sister  buried  be- 
neath the  feet  of  mighty.  All  that  was  done  here  under  this 
beautiful  flag  of  the  free.  I  saw  those  dear  old  people  hover- 
ing in  the  back  yards  of  their  masters  covering  their  heads 
to  keep  from  being  heard,  yet  they  were  praying  to  a  God 
that  was  millions  of  miles  away,  but  God  Almighty  heard  their 
prayers  and  sent  us  another  Moses  in  the  person  of  Abraham 
Lincoln.  At  one  stroke  ot  a  goose  quill  he  liberated  4,000,000 
of  people.  No  wonder  John  the  Revelator  said,  "I  saw  a  new 
heaven  and  a  new  earth,  for  the  first  heaven  and  first  earth 
had  passed  away."  Any  time  there  are  4,000,000  souls  leap- 
ing for  joy  if  that  is  not  heaven  where  are  you  going  to  find 
it,  since  the  Kingdom  of  God  is  in  the  hearts  of  men.  I  look 
down  the  line  of  life  a  little  nearer,  I  see  11,000,000  of  people 
who  have  fought  in  every  war  that  this  nation  has  ever  had — 
has  been  a  factor  in  the  power  that  has  won  every  victory  that 
this  government  has  ever  ask  for.  This  same  government  that 
we  fought,  bled  and  died  for  has  left  us  unprotected  to  our- 
selves, our  families  and  our  property.  But  God  Almigthy  has 
always  prepared  a  man  for  the  day  and  the  hour.  The  darkest 
hours  of  your  life  are  just  before  day,  a  new  morning  star  has 
risen,  a  brighter  day  is  dawning. 

There  was  a  ship  lost  at  sea  for  many  a  day  that  suddenly 
sited  a  friendly  vesel.  From  the  mask  of  that  unfortunate 
vessel  was  seen  a  signal  go  up.  "Water!  Water!  or  die  of 

(20) 


thirst."  The  answer  came  back,  "Cast  down  your  bucket 
where  you  are."  The  third  and  fourth  signal  for  water  was 
answered,  "Cast  down  your  bucket  where  you  are."  At  last 
the  captain  of  that  distressed  vessel  heeded  the  instruction 
and  cast  down  his  bucket,  and  to  his  great  surprise  it  came  up 
full  of  fresh  sparkling  water  right  from  the  mouth  of  the 
Amazon  river.  To  those  of  my  race  who  depend  upon  better- 
ing your  condition  in  a  foreign  land,  or  who  under  estimate 
the  importance  of  cultivating  that  friendly  relation  of  the 
white  man,  which  is  your  next  door  neighbor,  I  would  say, 
"Cast  down  your  bucket  where  you  are,"  cast  it  down  in  mak- 
ing friends,  in  every  manly  way  of  the  people  of  all  races 
whom  you  are  surrounded.  Cast  it  down  in  agriculture,  cast 
it  down  in  commerce,  cast  it  down  in  domestic  services,  and  in 
profession.  The  greatest  danger  is  in  that  great  leap  from 
slavery  to  freedom,  you  may  overlook  the  fact  that  the  masses 
of  us  are  to  live  from  the  production  of  our  hands.  You  fail 
to  keep  in  mind  that  you  shall  prosper  in  proportion  as  you 
learn  to  dignify  and  glorify  common  labor.  You  shall  prosper 
in  proportion  as  you  learn  to  draw  that  line  between  the  super- 
fluous and  the  substantial,  the  original  gulgo  of  life  as  well  as 
the  useful.  No  race  can  prosper  until  it  learns  that  there  is 
as  much  dignity  in  tilling  a  field  as  there  is  in  writing  a  poem. 
It  is  at  the  bottom  of  life  where  you  must  begin,  and  not  at 
the  top.  Neither  should  you  permit  your  grievance  to  over- 
shadow your  opportunities.  We  who  think,  and  understand 
that  the  agitation  of  questions  of  social  equality  is  of  extrem- 
ist folly  all  the  blessings  and  all  of  the  privileges  that  would 
come  to  you  must  be  the  result  of  constant  and  severe  strug- 
gles, rather  than  artificial  forces.  No  race  can  have  anything 
to  contribute  to  the  markets  of  this  world  as  long  as  in  any 
degree  ostracized.  It  is  right  and  fair  that  all  of  the  privileges 
of  the  law  be  ours.  It  is  vastly  more  important  that  you  are 
prepared  for  the  exercise  of  these  privileges.  So  an  oppor- 
tunity to  earn  a  dollar  just  now  in  a  factory  is  worth  infinate- 
ly  more  than  the  opportunity  to  spend  a  dollar  in  a  opera 
house.  That  being  true  let  us  put  forth  our  best  efforts  in  the 
forest  and  fields,  in  mines,  and  in  factories,  and  much  good 
will  come.  Yes  far  above  and  beyond  that  material  benefit 
will  be  that  higher  good.  Then  when  you  have  done  all  that 
has  been  assigned  to  your  hands  to  do,  let  the  praying  part  of 
our  people  pray  that  God  will  come  in  the  blotting  out  of  the 
sectual  differences,  and  racial  animosities  in  that  determination 
to  administer  absolute  justice  in  that  willing  obedience  to  all 
classes  unto  the  mandates  of  the  law.  And  to,  in  working  out 

(21) 


your  differences  you  will  need  in  a  large  measure  in  the  years 
that  are  to  come  the  help,  the  encouragement,  the  guidance 
that  the  strong  can  give  the  weak,  so  it  is  very  necessary  that 
we  all  are  bound  together  in  that  great  fraternal  world  in 
order  that  we  might  assist  each  other  and  soon  throw  off  the 
shackles  of  racial  prejudice  and  hatred  and  rise  as  it  is  risen 
our  beloved  country,  above  the  clouds  of  ignorance,  narrow- 
ness, and  selfishness  unto  that  atmosphere,  into  that  pure 
sunshine  where  it  would  be  your  highest  ambition  to  serve 
man  our  brother,  regardless  to  race,  color,  or  previous  con- 
ditions. 

Now  if  you  will  be  faithful  over  these  few  things  which  are 
easy  to  believe,  some  day  you  shall  be  transported  into  that 
region  that  is  more  vast  where  you  shall  be  face  to  face,  the 
fulfillment  of  task,  a  thousand  times  greater  than  you  ever 
witnessed  in  this  life. 

Your  present  life  and  its  requirements  are  only  stepping 
stones  into  vast  temples  where  you  shall  see  the  spring  of  all 
powers,  that  center  of  all  good,  that  fountain  head  of  all  glory. 


(22) 


: 


